Charity Sweepstakes Puts a 850-Horsepower Shelby Super Snake-R on the Block

One of the rarest Mustangs Shelby American has ever put its name on is going to a single donor, and the winner will not have to cover the federal tax bill that usually comes with a prize this size.

The 2026 Shelby Super Snake-R at the center of the Dream Giveaway campaign is serial No. 3 of just 100 examples slated for production. Entries come by way of a donation, with proceeds directed to veterans’ and children’s charities. Organizers say they will pay the federal prize taxes on behalf of whoever is drawn, removing a hurdle that has complicated more than a few high-dollar giveaways over the years.

The car itself is built on the Ford Mustang Dark Horse platform, then reworked into something considerably more serious. A supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 sends more than 850 horsepower through a six-speed manual transmission, an increasingly rare pairing in an era of paddle shifters and automatic-only performance flagships. Shelby’s engineers did not stop at the powertrain. The R designation brings fully adjustable coil-over suspension, a chassis stiffening system and a run of race-derived hardware meant to keep the car settled when the pace picks up.

The visual argument is just as direct. A widebody stance sits over oversized performance tires, and a full complement of carbon-fiber aerodynamic pieces — front splitter, rear wing and diffuser — works to generate downforce rather than merely suggest it. The cabin follows the same logic, with Shelby performance seats, serialized badging and detailing borrowed from the company’s racing side.

The R badge is new territory. No previous Super Snake has worn it, and Shelby is treating the model as a step up within a lineup that already sat near the top of the American performance market. Each car built will be logged in the official Shelby Registry, the kind of documentation that tends to matter a great deal when a limited-production muscle car eventually changes hands. Starting values run north of $220,000.

Dream Giveaway’s access to the car stems from its long-running relationship with Shelby American, which is how a car this early in the production run ended up as a sweepstakes prize rather than in a private collection.